Dr. Nakeshbandi is the vice president/chief medical officer at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University. In this capacity, Dr. Nakeshbandi provides strategic leadership to the medical staff and leads clinical operations in the hospital, ensuring the highest standards of patient care. Dr. Nakeshbandi spearheads the High Reliability Organization journey and the health equity initiatives at the institution, advancing culture of safety, quality and equity in healthcare delivery.

Before assuming his current role, Dr. Nakeshbandi was the chief quality officer at Downstate, where he played a key role in planning, implementing and monitoring quality measures, regulatory compliance and process improvement. His leadership in these areas resulted in significant improvements in quality measures, including reduction in hospital-acquired infections, enhancement in Patient Safety Indicators and better performance in Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEIDS) measures.

For his leadership and accomplishments, Dr. Nakeshbandi has received several awards, including induction into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society for academic excellence and leadership in medicine in 2024, the CLEAR Healthcare Heroes Award in 2020 and the Tribute to Excellence in Healthcare Award in 2019.

Dr. Nakeshbandi earned a master's in healthcare administration at Columbia University, an MD from Aleppo University School of Medicine, completed his internal medicine residency at West Virginia University and a fellowship in infectious disease at SUNY Downstate.

In addition to his administrative leadership, Dr. Nakeshbandi is an associate professor of medicine and public health at SUNY Downstate and an adjunct assistant professor of public health at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.